Horizontal wells drilled and completed in unconsolidated sand reservoirs have become feasible recently, due to new technology and completion methods. Wells of this type require sand control, for example such as long open hole gravel packs or the installation of mechanical sand exclusion devices (slotted liners, prepacked screens, etc.). Successful wells have been completed with horizontal, producing intervals as long as 1800 ft. (550 m) using these methods of sand control.
Usually the wells are drilled with conventional drilling muds to the top of the pay zone and casing is set. The cement is then drilled out to the casing shoe and the shoe is tested. The drilling mud is then displaced with a "low damage potential drilling fluid" generally consisting of polymers, viscosity enhancers and soluble particles for building a filter cake. The particles are usually graded salt (NaCl) or graded calcium carbonate (CaCO.sub.3), though the distribution of the size of the particles within a particular graded product has never been a concern. These compounds are used because they are soluble in undersaturated brines or hydrochloric acids. One problem with prior art filter cakes is that they are often difficult to remove requiring high pressures to do so. Under such conditions, damage results to the formation. Such damage is believed to occur because the filter cake invades the formation and becomes "cemented" thereto and must be forcibly removed at high pressure; the forceful removal is thought to cause damage to the permeability of the formation.
After the open hole interval has been drilled to total depth, the gravel pack screen or sand exclusion device is placed in the open hole interval. To do this it becomes necessary to circulate the drilling fluid from the open hole so that the well can be gravel packed or the sand exclusion setting can be tested. Displacement of the drilling fluid with a solid-free completion brine, usually viscosified with a water soluble polymer, e.g. hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) or xanthum gum derivative, is necessary. Concern about the physical erosion of the filter cake with the completion fluid is also always an issue. That is, the filter cake should be durable and stable enough to permit the completion or other operation to take place and protect the well bore during the entire operation.
The ideal drilling mud or drill-in fluid would mechanically seal all pore openings exposed to the well bore, stay intact during completion operations, then be easily removed by production of oil or gas. Problems arise in designing these fluids or muds because production zones vary in pressure, permeability, porosity and formation configuration. Generally, fluids used to control fluid leak-off in permeable formations require an initial high pressure spike before removal can begin, from about 300 to 500 psi. This pressure spike is indicative of damage to the original permeability of the permeable formation. It would be desirable if fluids could be devised which would easily form an impermeable filter cake to prevent the loss of expensive completion fluids to the formations and which effectively protects the original permeable formation during various completion operations such as gravel packing or well bore workovers. At the same time, however, it is also highly desirable for the filter cake to be easily removable at the beginning of production causing little or no damage to the formation.